The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1887-03-20
Agent.
The Condition.

a question which IS going to present
itself for very serious consideration in
the near future. is that OF the judiciary
of Utah, and especially the machinery
(which runs the First District. The
crusade against the Mormons has been
growing as a mighty incubus. laying
its feelers, octopus like, in all directions,
and drawing into It's ponderous jaws all
upon whom it could fasten its shiny
tentacles and crushing the life ana
vitality out of its victims. The tales of
suffering and misery caused by the
monster need no repetition here, so
thoroughly are they understood. 1t
las at last reached such proportions
that almost the entire engineering of
the courts is devoted to the process of
trying to stamp and crush out of ex-
istence the nObler attributes of men
who chance to be brought before the
courts and charged with the crime OF
unlawful cohabitatlon-a crime which,
at the very worst, is nothing but POI
litical in its nature. The more heinous
crimes on the list are overlooked and
lost sight OF IN the race to punish men
for living with more than one family;
the civil business of the courts Is
shelved, and the course Of business i'm
peded, that the progress Of the crusade
may be advanced. The grand juries
devote their time and eXpend the
money that should go to the
improving of the real interests
OF the community to the piling
up of indictments against this one class
of offenders, and partisan prosecutors
and judges devote the time of the
courts to trying these cases, which
merely tear men from their families and
hinder the material progress of Iegit-
innate enterprise. Instead of improv-
ing the condition OF society and helping
the general good, the methods become
worse and the courts.become more and
more clogged with the trials of these
political cases, and it is almost impOs-
sible for the business community to get
important civil business, which involves
thousands of dollars, adjudicated. The
statutes say criminal cases shall first be
attended to, and the average crusader
loses sight of his own interest, if he be
in business, in the mad race to win
glory and popular applause by punish
ing the hated Mormons. The cry of
'priestly rule" aud Mormon men
dacity and corruption" are not signifi
cant; they merely mislead and blind
men eyes with prejudice without con-
yincing their judgment or improving
their status. The rank anti-Mormon
is a complete slave to the schemes of
the crusade clique, and woIships the
lash that is held over him as completely
as heathens ever worshipped their idols.
They stop not to asS their Judgment
what good can come of the fight, even
were they to accomplish the ends they
profess to desire.
Suppose for one moment that the
Mormons were to give up their plural
wives and fall into the line Of the
world. what would those who are fight
ing against the system gain? Simply
nothing. The Mormon with two wives
does not encroach upon the right or
liberties OF his Gentle neigh Dor who has
but one wife, and the moral atmosphere
of that neighbor would not be purer
were the Mormon to disoWn one of
those wives.
In a financial sense. the crusade is
more suicidal than it is from the moral
standpoint. The man who owns a
corner lot will hardly argue that his
property becomes more valuable be-
cause the man owing the adjoining lot
is driven from home and deprived of his
liberty, thus being prevented from i'm
proving that lot. When, instead of
being able to bend their whole energies
to the development and improvement
OF their resources men are driven from
their homes and families into exile or
bounded into prisons; when, instead of
uniting in eXertions to bring general
prosperity TO the commonwealth,
political chickering's and interneciae
strife are the rule, 10 one can reason
ably expect prosperity. With the
magnificent resources of our country, if
this strife were thrown to the side and
all were to work for the benefit of the
community, an era of prosperity would
soon dawn that would dwarf many OF
the older and more thickly populated
countries. The sooner such consum-
nation is reached the sooner will all
classes enjoy the blessings within their
reach.